


The Shifter of the Red Deserts

by BossBaiGirl6198



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Badass Bilbo, Gen, M/M, People are scared of Bilbo, shifter bilbo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-26 23:09:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14412504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BossBaiGirl6198/pseuds/BossBaiGirl6198
Summary: He had chose to shed his scales and wings for a more nimble body.  He still had his hair, claws however shrunken and his heightened senses.  But what can that do for you when a band of dwarves come talking about an adventure? You go along, no matter what it might throw at you.





	The Shifter of the Red Deserts

**Author's Note:**

> He had chose to shed his scales and wings for a more nimble body. He still had his hair, claws however shrunken and his heightened senses. But what can that do for you when a band of dwarves come talking about an adventure? You go along, no matter what it might throw at you.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats—the hobbit-shifter was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill —The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it—and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.

This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins respectively when he was integrated into the family some 300 years ago. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins in only name had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected and highly unwanted, maybe not the revenge part but all together nothing went how poor Thythriedear Cryanthus Bilbo wanted it to go. And as it might turn out, it all started with a band of dwarves and a meddling wizard by the name of Gandalf. 

 

\------------

 

Bilbo was not a morning person, no matter how tempting the prospect of going and killing a band of annoying trolls was. For he quiet liked to hear their screams of pain in the morning. Trolls reminded him to much of the Orc’s that had trapped him for their own fun, in other words, torture. And as it turned out, Orc’s liked to torture the shifters from the Serpent Clan, namely dragon shifters. Which is what our dear bilbo was, a dragon. He had chose to shed his scales and wings for a more nimble body after that episode in his life. He still had his hair, claws however shrunken and his heightened senses. 

So as it seemed, he wasn't expecting anything dramatic to happen today. With this outlook on the morning he was in a good mood, that was until something caught his attention. All that the unsuspecting Bilbo saw that morning was an old man with a staff. He had a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, a silver scarf over which his long white beard hung down below his waist, and immense black boots. “Good Morning!” said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat. “What do you mean?” he said. “Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”

“All of them at once,” said Bilbo with a slight edge to his voice. “And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain. If you have a pipe about you, sit down and have a fill of mine! There’s no hurry, we have all the day before us!” Then Bilbo sat down on a seat by his door, crossed his legs, and blew out a beautiful grey ring of smoke that sailed up into the air without breaking and floated away over The Hill. Blowing smoke rings was one of the things that always seemed to calm him down and sooth his gold lust, no matter the amount gold. 

“Very pretty!” said Gandalf. “But I have no time to blow smoke-rings this morning. I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.” Bilbo stopped. Why would anyone want to go on an adventure with a meddling wizard. Oh yes, he knew who Gandalf the Grey was, and his extremely long list of adventures. 

Gandalf nodded once then went to moving down the hobbit worn path. Leaving bilbo looking after him with a puzzled look. It was concluded, Bilbo Baggins hated wizards.

 

\----------

 

Just getting back from his late afternoon fun spee, of which consisted of killing a band of wargs and Orcs, Bilbo was happy. How fun it was. Bilbo was putting his short swords and throwing knives away in his room when a knock on his door acquired his attention. Sweeping his waist length red honey hair into a leather band and stuffing his small feet into heavy black boots, Bilbo moved to the pale green door. Opening it, he was expecting one of his neighbors. 

“I am so sorry to keep you waiting!” he was going to say, however when he saw that it was not one of his fellow inhabitants of Hobbiton at all he was confused. It was a dwarf with a blue beard tucked into a golden belt, and very bright eyes under his dark-green hood. As soon as the door was opened, he pushed inside, just as if he had been expected. He hung his hooded cloak on the nearest peg, and “Dwalin at your service!” he said with a low bow.

“Bilbo Baggins at yours” said the shifter, too surprised to ask any questions for the moment. When the silence that followed had become uncomfortable, he added: “I am just about to make some food; pray come and have some with me.” A little stiff perhaps, but he meant it kindly or as kindly as he could to a dwarf of Erebor. He stunk of the smell of gold, not good. What would you do, if an uninvited dwarf came and hung his things up in your hall without a word of explanation? Throw them out? No, Hobbit culture had beat into him some sense of hospitality. Showing the dwarf to his dining table he sat along with him. 

They had not been at table long, in fact they had hardly reached the beginning for conversation, when there came another even louder knock at the door. “Excuse me” said the shifter, and off he went to the door. “Who is it now?” That was what he was going to say to whoever it was this time. But it was not one of his shared townmates. Instead there was a very old-looking dwarf on the step with a white beard and a scarlet hood; and he to hopped inside as soon as the door was open, just as if he had been invited. “I see they have begun to arrive already,” he said when he caught sight of Dwalin’s green hood hanging up. He hung his red one next to it, and “Balin at your service!” he said with his hand on his breast. “Thank you” said Bilbo with a tight smile. It was not the correct thing to say, but they have begun to arrive had made him susceptible to any slip in the manners of hospitality. He liked visitors, but he liked to know them before they arrived, and he preferred to ask them himself. As the host: he knew his duty and stuck to it however painful—he might have to go without knowing why a small group of dwarves would be in his smail.

“Come along in” he managed to say after taking a deep breath through gritted teeth. “A little beer would suit me better, if it is all the same to you, my good sir,” said Balin with the white beard. “But I don’t mind some cake— seed-cake, if you have any.” He wants food?

“Lots!” Bilbo found himself answering, to his own surprise; and he found himself scuttling off to the cellar to fill a pint beer-mug, and then to a pantry to fetch two beautiful round seed- cakes which he had baked that afternoon for his after-supper morsel. When he got back Balin and Dwalin were talking at the table like old friends (they were brothers). Bilbo plumped down the beer and the cake in front of them, when loud came a knock at the door again, and then another knock. ‘’ What is this time,” he thought as he puffed along the passage. It was two more dwarves, both with blue hoods, silver belts, and yellow beards; and each of them carried a bag of tools and a spade. In they hopped, as soon as the door began to open— Bilbo was hardly surprised at all. “What can I do for you, dwarves?” he said.

“Kili at your service!” said the one. “And Fili!” added the other; and they both swept off their blue hoods and bowed. “At yours and your family’s!” replied Bilbo, remembering his manners this time. “Dwalin and Balin here already, I see,” said Kili. “Let us join the throng!” 

“Throng!?” thought Bilbo dramatically. “I don’t like the sound of that. I really must sit down for a minute and collect my wits, and have a drink.” He had only just had a sip—in the corner, while the four dwarves sat round the table, and talked about mines and gold and troubles with the goblins, and the depredations of dragons (that was a topic that Bilbo wanted to shy away from), and lots of other things which he did not understand, and did not want to, for they sounded much too energy spending.

Another knock sounded to Bilbo’s sensitive ears. “Someone at the door again” he said, blinking. “Some four, I should say by the sound,” said Fili. “Besides, we saw them coming along behind us in the distance.” The poor shifter sat down in the hall and put his head in his hands, and wondered what had happened, and what was going to happen, and whether they would all stay to supper, he sure hoped not. Then a knock sounded again louder than ever, and he had to run to the door. It was not four after all, it was five. Another dwarf had come along while he was wondering in the hall. He had hardly turned the knob, before they were all inside, bowing and saying “at your service” one after another. Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, and Gloin were their names; and very soon two purple hoods, a grey hood, a brown hood, and a white hood were hanging on the pegs, and off they marched with their broad hands stuck in their gold and silver belts to join the others.Already it had almost become a throng. And they had brought gold, NOT GOOD.  
Bilbo didn’t like this at all. Some called for ale, and some for porter, and one for coffee, and all of them for cakes. A big jug of coffee had just been set in the hearth, the seed-cakes were gone, and the dwarves were starting on a round of buttered scones, when there came—a loud knock. Not a ring, but a hard rat-tat on the shifter’s beautiful green door. Somebody was banging with a stick! Bilbo rushed along the passage, very angry, and altogether bewildered and bewuthered— this was the most awkward Wednesday he ever remembered. He pulled open the door with a jerk, and they all fell in, one on top of the other. More dwarves, four more! Why!!!??? And there was Gandalf the stupid meddling wizard that he really wanted to burn right now, behind, leaning on his staff and laughing.

He had made quite a dent on the beautiful door; he had also, by the way, knocked out the secret mark that he had put there the morning before. “Carefully! Carefully!” he said. “It is not like you, Bilbo, to keep friends waiting on the mat, and then open the door like a pop-gun! Let me introduce Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, and especially Thorin!” Bilbo suppressed a growl. Now was not the time to slaughter dreaded dwarves that saw it fit to invade his house on the word of Gandalf of all people.  
“At your service!” said Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur standing in a row. Then they hung up two yellow hoods and a pale green one; and also a sky-blue one with a long silver tassel. This last one belonged to Thorin, an enormously muscled dwarf with long black hair and dazzling blue eyes, in fact, none other than the great Thorin Oakenshield himself, who was not at all pleased at falling flat on Bilbo’s ( Bilbo had great amusement at seeing this happen) mat with Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur on top of him. For one thing Bombur was really fat and heavy. Thorin indeed was very annoying to bilbo already and he hadn’t even talked to him yet, and said nothing about ‘ At your service ‘. 

Looking at Gandalf, Bilbo boiled in rage. ‘’ Curuke lat gandalf for defilaumn mausan grebita wiavh filavhausan dwarveuk ‘’ (Curse you Gandalf for defiling my hoard with filthy dwarves) Bilbo spat in black speak to the lone wizard in the corner. The Dwarves to busy re acquaint themselves with each other to notice the two talking. ‘’ Dear friend, you need some company. And Black speak is not something that would do your heart any good, especially around dwarves such as these. ‘’ Gandalf replied with a light scowl to the honey red shifter. ‘’Im ceri- ú- care an cín tellings, a im am baw mellon -o yours. Mín saved each others lives a i's ha. Hi cin see ha maer na defile nin hoard with dwarves uninvited, unannounced. I na- unacceptable. ‘’ ( I do not care for your tellings, and i am no friend of yours. We saved each others lives and that's it. Now you see it fit to defile my hoard with dwarves uninvited, unannounced. That is unacceptable. )Bilbo Replied in Sindarin as such to Gandalf’s prompting. Still not liking the circumstances around the event. 

‘’ We are in need of you in this adventure. If we could, a room to talk privately?’’ Gandalf inquired. Bilbo stalked off to the farthest room from the noisy dwarves that were beginning to raid his pantry. Gandalf walked behind him as he opened the door to his weapons room. Along the rounded walls, many small throwing knives that had been recently shined and sharpened meet his gaze. War hammers hung off pegs that had to be supported by braces to properly hung on the wall. Swords, both elvish and dwarfish shined as the late night sunrays reached them through the small window. Boots, cloaks, and supplies were seen in the other side of the room. Moving to the side of the room where a bench was supplied, Gandalf sat down as Bilbo shut the door. 

‘’ You speak now before you and I have a sprout ( fight or contention). Why is there dwarves in my smail and what is this adventure you spoke of about. ‘’ Bilbo said through gritted teeth. Gandalf sighed. ‘’ This company I organized has it in mind to recapture Erebor. We have no army, no other support besides the thirteen dwarves in your dining room. We need a burglar, to get the Arkenstone in the final stage of the adventure to get the Mountain back. However, there is the problem with… maybe a dragon perhaps… which is why we need you. ‘’ Gandalf trailed off at the end. Bilbo looked sharply at the old wizard. A dragon? He couldn’t mean… oh but he might. ‘’ Smaug? ‘’ Bilbo said with a faraway look. Gandalf looked pale as Bilbo slowly gained an evil grin showing long sharp canines that were not normal to a hobbit. Bilbo’s eyes flashed red before returning to his honey eyes with slits like a cats. ‘’ What is it that you have in mind for a contract.?’’ Gandalf looked pleased. Sitting up straighter he began to explain what he and the dwarves had conquered up before hand. The glint in Bilbo’s eye never quiet leaving as Gandalf paved the road for his plan of revenge against the red fire drake that had destroyed his family and those of his kind that he had held so dear. Oh yes, this adventure started to sound more appealing as it was discovered and brought to light. 

 

\----------

 

Thorin didn’t know what to think about the newcomer that Gandalf had in mind for the position of their burglar. Not that the small creature didn’t look like he could fight, quiet the opposite actually. The long red honey hair that held numerous dwarfish braids was something that threw him off. How would a creature that looked like a mix between an elf and an cat in human form have anything to do with dwarves. Even when the dwarves were still in Erebor, the kingdom had still had tensions between the elves and themselves. Only in the old days were any type of positive interaction between the two. This puzzled him greatly. 

Their host as it would seem wasn’t a hobbit either. The Hobbits that they had seen walking to this house had round plump belly’s speaking of regular meals and little exercise, big feet with tufts of curly hair on them, and a standard of short manicured hair. Nothing like their esteemed host. For one, theri choice of clothes was drastically different. In as much as that if anyone form the small village that they resided in now would stand beside their host, they would look slightly similar but not of the same species. Dwalin had told him earlier that his name was Bilbo, first name anyway. No one in the company had any clue as to what family name he might have. 

As all thirteen dwarves sat at the dining table they were throwing comments out like it was a contest. 

‘’ You think that Mister Bilbo will be any good at swords play?’’ Asked Bufur to an equally questioning Oin. ‘’ Well i saw him when he was walking back to his room, i think, with a sword of dwarfish make on his hip. He didn’t come back out of the room with it though so i wasn’t able to ask him about it. ‘’ Kili said to the group. Fili nodded as an affirmative. Bombur’s stomach growled making everyone look at him as they each frowned because of their own empty bellies. Gandalf had said that there would be food but it seemed that their host had not been told the same as he had dragged Gandalf away scowling angrily at him for the interruption of him nightly routine. That had been some forty minutes ago and the company was getting quiet annoyed at having nothing to do. 

As if summoned by their thoughts, Bilbo walked out of the door that he and Gandalf had disappeared into earlier. Their host. Clad in brown shorts and a thick black shirt that was loose around his shoulders came walking to them and into the kitchen with a distant look in his eyes. Gandalf soon followed and sat besides Thorin at the end of the table. ‘’ Master Gandalf, have you talked about the contract to the fellow?’’ Balin asked the aging wizard. Smiling, Gandalf nodded as the sounds of banging pots could be heard in the room next to theirs. ‘’ What did he say then? Come come tell us Master Gandalf ‘’ Gloin said. Voices of agreement sounded as Gandalf seemed to move backwards in his chair. 

‘’ Master Baggins has agreed to accompany us during our journey. He is willing to sign the contract when he is done reviewing it. Congratulations, you have yourselves a burglar. ‘’ Gandalf said as everyone shouted their joy, or in the case of Fili or Kili, they felt the need to jump up and down scattering dirt and mud on the caret that Bilbo valued as much as his Silver China, in mortal standards, A LOT! Poor Kili and Fili, to caught up in their celebrating that they didn’t see one Bilbo Baggins behind them with a murderous look upon his face. Everyone else, including Gandalf and Thorin backed away from the incoming doom that would befall the younger dwarves. 

‘’ What do you two think you are doing tracking mud in my carpet. ‘’ This was said softly, however everyone felt a chill run down their spines as Kili and Fili turned pale. Turning they would later say that they could see the very god of death standing over the enraged shifter. Little did they know that Bilbo Baggins had his carpet and Hobbit hole at the top of his list of prized possessions in his hoard. Poor them. 

 

\--------- Chapter 1 end---------

Hope you like it. Enjoy. The next chapter will be out some time next week. 

JaNe

Boss Out!


End file.
